I bet shape not magnitude is confusing. If reading something before a meeting is useful but not needed, the meeting is tomorrow afternoon, it doesn’t do much good to read it in four days just because it’s not that important.

So every day has its tasks and I start the day with the important tasks for that day. If I don’t get to reading that unimportant report but focused on something way more important, great. At least it was scheduled for the right day.

By doing it her way you are asking yourself to preform poorly on both sides of the week. Not getting the extra stuff done on Monday that shows your ready for extra responsibility, and putting off the important stuff for Monday when your received it on Thursday. You look like a slacker at the end of the week and responsible yet not doing more then required in the beginning.

I read your post about it. The results are for instance:
# I breath with full chest. No more fire alarms.
# I know what I do and why I do it.
which is in harmony with this post.

I had a bit difficulties to see the difference between using your time-budget and just the allocation on a daily basis for projects. I guess it is more long term time allocation!?

Alik Levin | PracticeThis.com´s last blog post: Gemba Kaizen – Three Step Approach For Kick 5 S’s Management

I started with creating a excel spreadsheet with tasks and it is getting better, but I like your idea with the calender.

Click A Life Coach´s last blog post: Productivity

Of course if you are willing and able to create a more flexible work-time (i.e. “The 4 Hour Work Week” by Timothy Ferriss) it’s even more flexible :)

Wim´s last blog post: Prioritizing and Planning: The Urgency Trap.

To me this mostly happens if I’m not enough committed to the task. You could also say motivated or inspired. If the A task is really an A, it means that you get a huge benefit out of it. It comes from your goals and desires. It really takes you forward.

If that’s the case, then it is merely a question of mechanics: how do you execute it and do you have a strong enough focus to stay on what is important to you? If yes, then executing and even something called self-discipline becomes a no-brainer. Because it is driven by enthusiasm.

I know, that’s not the case with every task though. Then the learned mechanics are handy because every C-task should somehow be part of the whole picture … ;)

brian´s last blog post: The 18 year drip…

I think there is the typical battle between productivity and creativity. Mary just wrote about that on http://goodlifezen.com/2008/10/27/less-stress-more-productivity-how-you-can-do-it/ where she said the best thing is, that you keep your head free of all the things, because you can just put them into your trusted system. And you know that it will come up if appropriate. I agree on that, this is a huge helper to be focused on the task at hand. And it also can reduce the stress-level.

There is another point I observed with friends and colleagues: the fear of losing creativity and flexibility because THE TOOL DICTATES WHAT I HAVE TO DO!! ;) The thing is, that we dictated the tool what it dictates us to do, so we have to think about it only once. If you have the right A’s, the most important things for you right now, then this is empowering you instead of blocking your creativity. That’s at least my experience :)

I’m with Evelyn. I tend to go more with the flow.

I’ve tried making a plan for topics I will cover on my blog. But when I sit to write a post, another idea may take hold that takes me in a totally different direction. This morning, for example, I was scheduled to post about the impressions people leave behind based on an article I read. But when I sat to write it, a memory of how much fun we had playing a game at my son’s birthday party popped in my head. So, I wrote about that instead.

Flora Morris Brown, Ph.D.´s last blog post: Playing Games Can Bring You Closer to Family and Friends

Evelyn Lim´s last blog post: Can You Read My Mind?

The best that time-management can do is that you always focus on the most important thing at the moment and the most important thing is determined by your goals and by demands. If you check the Time-Management Matrix here http://www.awakeblogger.com/2008/07/the-7-habits-of-highly-effective-people-1-private-victory/ if you manage the work more from the zone, you can be more proactive than reactive.

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